This essay was written before I published Recovering the Reformed Confession (2008), which, remarkably and quite unexpectedly, remains in print. In it, I interacted with a book review published in Christianity Today which serves as a symbol of the way Pietists and modern evangelicals . . . Continue reading →
When the essay first appeared, the controversy over Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) was still relatively fresh. Reformed leaders (e.g., Mike Horton, R. C. Sproul, James M. Boice, and W. Robert Godfrey, et al.) had responded to ECT by forming the Alliance . . . Continue reading →
From the author of The Lost Soul of American Protestantism and From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal American Conservatism, comes Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant. Part of Oxford’s “Spiritual Lives” series, the host of the Paleo Protestant Pudcast (podcast) . . . Continue reading →
Some years ago on one of his broadcasts, Bill Maher defined faith as “the purposeful suspension of critical thinking.”1 Similarly, Richard Dawkins, Neil deGrasse Tyson and others have defined faith as “believing something in the absence of evidence.”2 But are these definitions . . . Continue reading →
D. G. Hart, Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College and visiting Professor of Church History at Westminster Seminary California, will be giving a course on Roman Catholics in America (CH555), August 2–5, 2022 | 1:00pm–4:15pm (PDT). This course covers the . . . Continue reading →
A significant part of the process of recovering and applying classical Reformed theology to our contemporary situation (sometimes called ressourcement, a French word which refers to getting back to original sources) is recovering the distinctions that we lost in the 19th and . . . Continue reading →
To refresh, my framework posits that during the period of secularization post-1965, America has passed through three distinct phases or worlds in terms of how secular culture views Christianity. Positive World (Pre-1994). Christianity was viewed positively by society and Christian morality was still . . . Continue reading →
The Ancient Near Eastern culture described in the Old Testament and in which the Old Testament scriptures were given can sometimes seem foreign to our postmodern world. There are, however, some striking points of contact. One of these is the cult of . . . Continue reading →
A former pastor of the nation’s largest Independent Fundamental Baptist congregation has been released from federal prison, records show. He had pleaded guilty to taking a 16-year-old across state lines for sex. Jack Schaap, 64, was released Wednesday from the federal prison . . . Continue reading →
In a May 9 video message to the congregation, Pastor Dave Dummitt said the church was “about half the size we were before COVID . . . and as you can imagine that has financial implications.” He said leadership would be working . . . Continue reading →
The Presbycast (Brad “Chortles Weakly” Isbell and Wresbyterian) put up the bat signal yesterday so I filled in for the redoutable Chris Drew. There was some confusion over the number of episodes in which I have appeared. The correct number is 25. . . . Continue reading →
The expression “mainline church” is drawn from an old-money neighborhood in Philadelphia known as “the main line.” The mainline churches were what are sometimes called the “tall steeple” church along the mainline. Scholars of American Christianity sometimes speak of the “Seven Sisters . . . Continue reading →
Jeffrey Walton reports that the membership Presbyterian Church (USA), the mainline liberal denomination, declined by 51, 584 in 2021. That is a loss of about 4%.
Many Americans born after 1960 have trouble imagining that for much of the country’s history the Bible was a chief source of national identity. Older Hollywood directors sometimes get it right. Take “Liberty Heights” (1999), written and directed by Barry Levinson (born . . . Continue reading →
Locke and Shaftesbury opened an intellectual world firmly in the deist camp, even though deism itself was more an outlook and reading list than a card-carrying affiliation. Franklin later described his religious sensibility as the sort of minimalist belief he found in . . . Continue reading →
As much as the debates in Commonweal and the Times revealed that Roman Catholics were not of the same mind about the church’s relationship to modern society, those disputes were mild compared to a revival of antiliberalism from Roman Catholic intellectuals. In . . . Continue reading →
Integralism and Protestant theocracy are twin movements of which our readers should be aware. The first is a Romanist movement. The second is a movement among a small but visible band Protestants who seek a similar outcome. Roman Integralism Romanist “integralists” like . . . Continue reading →
How pervasive is Christian nationalism in the United States? Before answering, a more pressing question is: What is it? Here the people paid to define our terms are all over the place. Christian nationalism can involve a national church like the Church . . . Continue reading →
On June 9, 1886, a funeral was held in a church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The deceased, John Williamson Nevin (1803–86), was a pastor, professor, and theologian in the German Reformed Church. Friends and family were in attendance as well as several theologians and professors of differing fame and reputation. None of this was unusual for a theologian’s funeral in nineteenth-century America. There was, however, at least one irregularity: A. A. Hodge (1823–16) gave one of the eulogies.1 Hodge’s late father, Charles Hodge (1797–1878), and Nevin were involved in one of the most prominent sacramental controversies in nineteenth-century America, yet the younger Hodge eulogized the very man who contested with his father decades before. Even now, the controversy and theologies that gave rise to it live on long after the death of the major figures. Continue reading →
During his 21 years as lead pastor of Grace Church in Greenville, North Carolina, Mike Meshaw has seen many people come and go in the transient area that is home to East Carolina University. Before COVID-19 shut things down in March 2020, . . . Continue reading →